“Please go outside. You’re only making things more difficult.” The carers grab In-hye by the armpits and lift her up. With no time to resist, she is pushed through the open door and out into the corridor. The nurse who had been standing outside takes her by the arm.

“Please stay here. She’ll be calmer without you in there.”

Yeong-hye’s doctor pulls on a pair of surgical gloves and spreads an even layer of jelly over the long, slender tube that the head nurse hands to him. In the meantime, one of the carers is having to use all his strength to try to hold Yeong-hye’s head still. As soon as they approach her with the tube Yeong-hye’s face flushes crimson and she manages to shake herself free of the carer’s grip. It is just as the nurse had said; impossible to know where such strength is coming from. In-hye takes a step forward, faintly dazed, but the nurse grabs her arm and holds her back. Eventually, the carer wrestles Yeong-hye’s sunken cheeks back into his strong grasp, and the doctor inserts the tube into her nose.

“Damn it, it’s blocked!” the doctor exclaims. Yeong-hye has opened her mouth as wide as it will go, thereby managing to close up her gullet around the uvula so that the tube is pushed out. The internist, who had been waiting to send the thin gruel flowing into the tube through the syringe, furrows his brow. Yeong-hye’s doctor removes the tube from her nose.

“Right, let’s try one more time. Quicker this time.”

Again jelly is rubbed onto the tube. Again the carer pits his robust physique against Yeong-hye’s wasted strength, clamping his hands around her head. Again the tube is inserted into Yeong-hye’s nose.

“It’s in. That’s it, now.” A quick sigh escapes from the doctor’s mouth. The internist’s idle hands are busy all of a sudden. He starts to send the gruel through the syringe. The nurse who has been holding In-hye’s arm gives her a squeeze and whispers, “It’s worked. It’s a success. Now she’ll be put to sleep. Otherwise she might vomit, you see.”

As soon as the head nurse gets out the tranquilizer injection, the nurse’s aide gives a sharp scream. In-hye shakes off the other nurse’s hand and dashes back into the room.

“Out of the way, all of you! Get away from her!” In-hye grabs Yeong-hye’s doctor by the shoulder as he bends over the bed and yanks him back. She stands and looks down at Yeong-hye. The nurse’s aide, who had been holding the tube, has blood spatters on her face. The blood is gushing out of the tube, out of Yeong-hye’s mouth. The internist takes a step back, still holding the syringe.

“Take it out. Take the tube out, quickly!” In-hye is unaware of the shrill scream coming from her own mouth as she feels the carer try to grapple her away. Meanwhile, Yeong-hye’s doctor is finding it difficult to extract the long tube as his patient throws her head about.